The tetracyclines are broad spectrum anti-microbial agents that are widely used in human and veterinary medicine (Schappinger et al., “Tetracyclines: Antibiotic Action, Uptake, and Resistance Mechanisms” Arch. Microbiol. 165:359-69, 1996; Mitscher, Medicinal Research Series, Vol. 9, The Chemistry of the Tetracycline Antibiotics, Marcel Dekker Inc. New York, 1978). The total production of tetracyclines by fermentation or semi-synthesis is measured in the thousands of metric tons per year. The first tetracycline, chlorotetracycline (1) (Aureomycin™), was isolated from the soil bacterium Streptomyces aureofaciens by Lederle Laboratories (Wyeth-Ayerst Research) in the 1945 (Duggar, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 51:177-181, 1948; Duggar, Aureomycin and Preparation of Some, U.S. Pat. No. 2,482,055, 1949; incorporated herein by reference). Oxytetracycline (2) was isolated soon after from S. rimosus by scientists at Pfizer Laboratories (Finlay et al. Science 111:85, 1950). The structures of chlorotetracycline and oxytetracycline were elucidated by scientists at Pfizer in collaboration with R. B. Woodward and co-workers at Harvard University (Hochstein et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 74:3708-3709, 1952; Hochstein et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 75:5455-75, 1953; Stephens et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 74:4976-77, 1952; Stephens et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 76:3568-75, 1954). Tetracycline (3) was later prepared by the hydrogenolysis of chlorotetracycline and was found to retain the anti-microbial activity of chlorotetracycline and oxytetracycline and had increased stability (Boothe et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 75:4621, 1953; Conover et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 75:4622-23, 1953). Tetracycline was later found to be a natural product of S. aureofaciens, S. viridofaciens, and S. rimosus. 

The primary tetracyclines of clinical importance today include tetracycline (3) (Boothe et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 75:4621, 1953), oxytetracycline (2, Terramycin™) (Finlay et al. Science 111:85, 1950), doxycycline (Stephens et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 85:2643, 1963), and minocycline (Martell et al. J. Med. Chem. 10:44, 1967; Martell et al. J. Med. Chem. 10:359, 1967). The tetracyclines exert their anti-microbial activity by inhibition of bacterial protein synthesis (Bentley and O'Hanlon, Eds., Anti-Infectives: Recent Advances in Chemistry and Structure-Activity Relationships The Royal Society of Chemistry: Cambridge, UK, 1997). Most tetracyclines are bacteriostatic rather than bactericidal (Rasmussen et al. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 35:2306-11, 1991; Primrose and Wardlaw, Ed. “The Bacteriostatic and Bacteriocidal Action of Antibiotics” Sourcebook of Experiments for the Teaching of Microbiology Society for General Microbiology, Academic Press Ltd., London, 1982). It has been proposed that after tetracycline passes through the cytoplasmic membrane of a bacterium it chelates Mg+2, and this tetracycline-Mg+2  complex binds the 30S subunit of the bacterial ribosome (Goldman et al. Biochemistry 22:359-368, 1983). Binding of the complex to the ribosome inhibits the binding of aminoacyl-tRNAs, resulting in inhibition of protein synthesis (Wissmann et al. Forum Mikrobiol. 292-99, 1998; Epe et al. EMBO J. 3:121-26, 1984). Tetracyclines have also been found to bind to the 40S subunit of eukaryotic ribosome; however, they do not achieve sufficient concentrations in eukaryotic cells to affect protein synthesis because they are not actively transported in eukaryotic cells (Epe et al. FEBS Lett. 213:443-47, 1987).
Structure-activity relationships for the tetracycline antibiotics have been determined empirically from 50 years of semi-synthetic modification of the parent structure (Sum et al. Curr. Pharm. Design 4:119-32, 1998). Permutations with the upper left-hand portion of the natural product, also known as the hydrophobic domain, have provided new therapeutically active agents, while modifications of the polar hydrophobic domain result in a loss of activity. However, semi-synthesis by its very nature has limited the number of tetracycline analogs that can be prepared and studied.

The tetracyclines are composed of four linearly fused six-membered rings with a high density of polar functionality and stereochemical complexity. In 1962, Woodward and co-workers reported the first total synthesis of racemic 6-desmethyl-6-deoxytetracycline (sancycline, 4), the simplest biologically active tetracycline (Conover et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 84:3222-24, 1962). The synthetic route was a remarkable achievement for the time and proceeded by the stepwise construction of the rings in a linear sequence of 22 steps (overall yield ˜0.003%). The first enantioselective synthesis of (−)-tetracycline (3) from the A-ring precursor D-glucosamine (34 steps, 0.002% overall yield) was reported by Tatsuda and co-workers in 2000 (Tatsuta et al. Chem. Lett. 646-47, 2000). Other approaches to the synthesis of tetracycline antibiotics, which have also proceeded by the stepwise assembly of the ABCD ring system beginning with D or CD precursors, include the Shemyakin synthesis of (±)-12a-deoxy-5a,6-anhydrotetracycline (Gurevich et al. Tetrahedron Lett. 8:131, 1967; incorporated herein by reference) and the Muxfeldt synthesis of (±)-5-oxytetracycline (terramycin, 22 steps, 0.06% yield) (Muxfeldt et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 101:689, 1979; incorporated herein by reference). Due to the length and poor efficiency of the few existing routes to tetracyclines, which were never designed for synthetic variability, synthesis of tetracycline analogs is still limited.

There remains a need for a practical and efficient synthetic route to tetracycline analogs, which is amenable to the rapid preparation of specific analogs that can be tested for improved antibacterial and potentially antitumor activity. Such a route would allow the preparation of tetra cycline analogs which have not been prepared before.